A little "religious education" to share

Belated wishes for a happy and productive new year!

Here is my only prediction for 2012: some businesses and business people will have a great year, some won't and the rest will fall in between. Nostradamus I am not. But my prediction could be correctly made any year, boom economy or bust, because whenever two or more are competing for the same dollars, someone is going to come in first and someone is going to come in last. Where you come in is thankfully up to you.

For those who don't know my total background, I lead something of a double life; in addition to the business world I am also an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church. Don't worry -- a spiritual message is not contained herein, but valuable marketing lessons can be learned almost anywhere. Like your car.

I recently leased a new car for work and one of the "extras" is the standard three month free trial of satellite radio. I'm a big believer in free so I am making the most of the 90 days. Given my deacon life, I was especially interested when I flipped the dial past the "Catholic Channel." Now for those who don't know it, the Church has its share of, shall we say, marketing concerns:

1. The whole sexual abuse of children chapter of church history was mishandled and it has understandably turned some of the faithful away. Corrections have been made but it takes time to heal.

2. Church attendance for almost all denominations is down over the last 10 to 15 years, especially in the Northeast. Demographic and sociological shifts.

3. In spite of declining attendance, there are not enough priests to take care of the number of parishes and churches that exist, and closing and consolidating churches makes even more people unhappy.

Make you feel a little better about your own business fortunes? There are a lot of aspects to what I have briefly listed above but the bottom line is that the Church is making big efforts to re-engage their membership. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they know what's going on with the Catholic Channel. I listened for 15 minutes and decided that (a) if I wasn't Catholic I wouldn't want to be one after listening and (b) would I want to publicly identify myself as a Catholic after listening. I admit it just was a narrow slice of their programming but the two people casually chatting on this program were obnoxious, unfocused and flippant. And as anyone in business and sales has learned, an unfocused knucklehead can erase more goodwill in ten minutes than a competent marketing staff can achieve in ten months.  And the public is happy to form an incorrect opinion of you based on knowing very little of what you really do.

The first of the year is an excellent time to do inventory of all your efforts: your signage, collateral material, advertising campaigns, marketing and customer service staff to make sure your message is put forward in a consistent, effective manner. And it's time to make one resolution: don't wait a year to re-evaluate it. Do it consistently.

Our Scotsman staff is ready to help you with your business needs -- call 315-472-7825 or e-mail us at info@scotsmanmediagroup.com. And, again, best wishes for a great 2012!